Constructing Social Research: The Unity and Diversity of Method - Paperback

by Charles C. Ragin (Author), Lisa M. Amoroso (Author)

The updated Third Edition of this innovative text shows the unity within the diversity of activities called social research to help students understand how all social researchers construct representations of social life using theories, systematic data collection, and careful examination of that data. The book tackles questions like "What is social research?", "How does it differ from journalism, documentary film-making, or laboratory research in the natural sciences?", and "What is the researcher′s obligation to those he or she is studying?"

Updated throughout with new references and examples, this edition is designed to evoke challenging questions regarding the nature of representation and the ethical challenges facing social scientific researchers. The text moves beyond standard research challenges to push readers to see the complex relationships among ethics, ideas, evidence, and outcomes.

Author Biography

Charles C. Ragin is Chancellor′s Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Irvine. As a social scientist and innovative methodologist, his work reflects a career-long passion for developing techniques that allow researchers to learn more from their data. His ideas and applications are used broadly across the social sciences today, as well as by researchers in many other fields. In addition to his regular teaching at the University of California, Professor Ragin hosts annual workshops on comparative methodology which attract a broad national and international contingent of advanced graduate students and professionals.

Lisa M. Amoroso is Professor of Management in the Brennan School of Business at Dominican University in River Forest, Illinois. She also works as a management consultant and runs executive workshops on negotiations, teams, and decision-making. Professor Amoroso′s research focuses on managerial control, status, diversity in organizations, and research methods. She has published numerous articles, including one on diversity education which received the Fritz Roethlisberger Memorial Award for the best article published in the Journal of Management Education.